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Jollibee Valentines Series: Here they go again!

Just in time for the love month, fast-food giant Jollibee is back again to capture the hearts of many Filipinos with their “Kwentong Jollibee Valentines” series.

This much-awaited Valentine’s day treat from Jollibee received a massive following a few years back with its local and relatable stories.

While their past videos focused on the traditional story of finding that “one true love”, this year’s series took a modern twist and delved into the struggles of modern relationships and how we can keep the love alive.

The first video, Space, directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo is a very witty yet still relatable story of Dan, a guy dealing with his breakup after his girlfriend asked for “space”, a common issue most young couples are faced with today.

This was followed by Couple Goals directed by Ianco Dela Cruz that takes a look into the modern-day struggles of a young, busy, successful couple together who their friends often refer to as #CoupleGoals.

Lastly, Apart directed by Pepe Diokno is a story about exes Miles and Ron and what they think contributed to their lost love.

As digital marketers, here’s what we can learn from Jollibee’s Valentine Series:

  • Keep content fresh and relatable

Following their past videos, people are expecting Jollibee to continue banking on feel-good stories for Valentine’s Day. While this may be an easy choice, Jollibee surprised their audience once again by showing the struggles of modern-day relationships for this year’s series, making it more enticing and relatable for their millennial audiences.

  • Build Momentum

As one of the biggest Filipino brands today, Jollibee knows how to attract and keep its audience asking for more. True enough, Jollibee built excitement by releasing a teaser for this year’s series as early as January 31. In fact, the teaser video became viral and to date has 3.4 million views on their Facebook page. The company has also rolled out the videos on separate days releasing individual teasers for each story, which helped make sure that their fans are continuously engaged and captivated by their short stories.

As they say, “content is king”. This is something that we have seen from Jollibee and should learn from them to build a brand that is timeless, trusted and relevant.

Need help in curating content for your brand? Get in touch with us, here at iManila!

As one of the leading full-service digital agencies in the Philippines, iManila is the trusted social media management agency of many local and international brands in the country.

Contact us today at (+632) 3490 0000 or email us at [email protected]. #DigitalAgency #iManila

What is up with Facebook in 2020?

The last 31 days of January 2020 has been heavily problematic for people around the world. With all the natural backlashes, war threats and virus outbreaks that claimed thousands of lives, it’s getting harder and harder for people to cope with every day. This may not be a lot to offer, but for Facebook, it’s a way to help people recover and re-connect. For businesses and brands, exciting and highly beneficial updates are on its way this 2020.

Home to around 2.2 billion users, Facebook, who also owns popular platforms Messenger and Instagram is no stranger to constant updates the way we’ve watched them implement changes in the past year. As marketers, it’s absolutely critical that we keep track and stay on top of these trends to stay relevant and to keep our audiences engaged.

  1. Lead Generation Tools in Messenger

This tool is out there but has been in beta-testing for quite some time. For businesses, your ads can now be clicked through and lead you to Messenger for faster inquiries and transactions. Messenger will simplify customers’ answers with automated questions in a direct, conversational way that brands can quickly jump into to continue the conversation and complete the conversion process. This will allow businesses to integrate their CRM provider to continue the conversation and track leads.

  1. Subscription Messaging Beta Update

The use of Subscription Messaging allows the brand to send non-promotional updates on a scheduled basis but unfortunately does not include advertisements, promotional content, solicitations, etc. On the new platform, Facebook’s Subscription Messaging is a big chance for businesses to send messages and provide their audiences with timely updates and information. This will help businesses to improve brand awareness and drive traffic to their websites which can lead to increased sales. This is a great way to promote your business on a more personal level compared to just having them be displayed in news feeds.

  1. Discover Tab Phase-Out

Launched just two years ago, Facebook has recently announced that they will be removing Messenger’s Discover Tab. This is in line with Messenger’s continuous overhaul which aims to simplify and declutter the app to focus on its core function – to connect people.

  1. Calibra

One of the major Facebook updates that will happen in 2020 is the launch of Calibra. A Facebook subsidiary, Calibra was designed to provide financial services under the digital wallet for the Libra network, a global cryptocurrency built on blockchain technology. This digital wallet is expected to be made available in Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp platforms, on top of its own app.

  1. New Navigation and Management Tools in Business Manager

This Facebook change is much more convenient in terms of improvements to Ads Manager and Business Manager that allow brands to build ads, manage Facebook assets and permission in an easier and faster way. This is useful for business owners who manage their business pages.

  1. Simplified Feed Formats

Because of the new Facebook design, primary text from seven are shorten to three lines for visibility and then prompted to click to view the entire text or post. Another major change is in terms of the aspect ratio of photos and videos from 2:3 to 4:5. These changes help to show more content in a span of one scroll.

  1. Refined Targeting Options

This year, privacy has been given attention as Facebook will trim down targeting ads to users in terms of demographics and buying behavior. This is part of an effort to lessen the pop-ups of third-party companies as it was known to track online behaviors outside of Facebook. It is great for individual privacy but a hassle for businesses that advertise on social media. To clear the confusion, Facebook will still target people based on their jobs and life events listed in user’s profiles as well as interaction on pages and posts.

  1. New Insights and eLearning Courses

Most businesses need a lot of improvement in terms of selling their brands to increase brand awareness and profitability. That’s why Facebook introduced free online courses for businesses to learn new marketing skills in presenting their brands. This is a great opportunity for marketers to learn how their consumers behave in order to help them grow their business.

Intimated by all these upcoming changes? Don’t fret! Having the right agency partner can help you navigate through this ever-changing digital landscape! Here at iManila, we believe in offering digital marketing services that will help you grow your business. Learn more about how we can help you here at https://imanila.ph/lets-talk/ or drop us an email at [email protected]. #iManila #DigitalAgency

cPanel 2020 Updates: Here’s What You Need to Know

Hosting automation platform giant cPanel, L.L.C. has recently issued a statement for its clients that there will be a massive update on their software. According to cPanel, “Due to various support and security reasons, cPanel, L.L.C. will automatically upgrade MySQL® 5.5 to MySQL 5.7 on customer servers that run cPanel & WHM version 78. We plan to perform this upgrade in the first quarter of 2020”.

Inline, the company has already blocked the upgrades to cPanel and Web Host Manager (WHM) version 80 for any server that is still running MySQL 5.5. This is also based on the company’s policy on blocking upgrades for various reasons like new memory requirements or new codes that cannot support a deprecated or disallowed software.

Due to the issued blocking, many customers are still running MySQL 5.5 on cPanel and WHM version 78.

What will happen if you continue using the old versions of cPanel and WHM?

The company indicated the issues that will be encountered if the current versions of cPanel and WHM will not be updated. These issues are: 

  • Components of their server may run deprecated or end-of-life versions;
  • cPanel, L.L.C. does not support end-of-life software. MySQL 5.5 reached end-of-life status in December 2018 and cPanel & WHM version 78 will reach end-of-life status by Q1 2020;
  • Compatibility issues with other software components;
  • Missing new features in cPanel & WHM that competitors provide;
  • Security issues, which will not receive patches because the software has reached end-of-life status.

cPanel further added that by proactively upgrading MySQL to supported versions, they can ensure that their customers will run supported software to avoid cases of having a dangerous vulnerability to hacks and malicious activities.

Make sure that your hosting platform and your website is always up to date to ensure better uptime and availability! Don’t lose your potential clients because of a down or poorly functional website. Here in iManila, we offer various hosting solutions, website maintenance services, or we can even do a full website revamp! (Learn more about our Lunar New Year promo HERE.)

If you need help with your hosting platform updates or with updating your WordPress version and plugins, don’t hesitate to call us at (02) 3490 0000 or email us at [email protected]. You can also directly send us a message through our Contact Us page. Our dedicated account managers would be more than happy to help! 

#iManila #WebsiteMaintenance #Hosting

iManila Lunar New Year 2020 Promo

Gong Xi Fa Cai! iManila, one of the country’s leading website development and digital marketing agencies, presents our Lunar New Year 2020 Promo! 

Get a 5-page WordPress Website for only P 38,888.00 (exclusive of VAT) plus the following inclusions:

  • One Year Free Web and Email Hosting
  • One Year Free US Domain
  • Choose from a variety of available website templates
  • Free use of up to 25 Stock Photos
  • Free One Page Content Writing up to 200 words
  • Free WordPress Training

This promo is perfect for businesses who need a catalog or informative type of website to showcase their products and services. These types of websites are also ideal for companies who are rushing to start their Digital Marketing campaigns by launching Google and Facebook Ads.

Boost your online presence and provide relevant content to your target market through a fully functional and well-designed website! If you’re ready, we can have your website up and running in 30 days!

Promo runs from January 24 to February 29, 2020. 

CONTACT US now to get this LIMITED TIME OFFER! 

 

Google Chrome to Block Websites that are “Not Secure”

Last October, Google announced that its famous browser, Google Chrome will no longer be accepting the legacy versions of TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.0 and 1.1, the cryptographic protocol used to encrypt transmissions between browsers and website servers. This year, the Google Chrome team has once again notified website owners that a new warning will appear while browsing.

Image from 9to5Google

 

When Google Chrome 81 debuts in March of this year, in the lead-up, Google will start displaying a full-page interstitial warning, “Your connection to this site is not fully secured” to the left of the address box to users that will try to access a site protected by outdated security protocols such as Chrome 79. Though this blockage plan isn’t on the run yet, the Chrome team has already started alerting users about this major update as this could cause major effects on user’s browsing activities and may expose user’s information sent to the site.

Chris Thompson of Google Chrome’s Security Team wrote recently, “We’re announcing a pre-removal phase in which we’ll introduce a gentler warning UI [user interface] and previewing the UI that we’ll use to block TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in Chrome 81.”

 

Image from 9to5Google

With this, Google encourages site administrators to update TLS legacy version 1.2 which was released over a decade ago, ahead of the TLS warnings. On the bright side, site administrators can still re-enable TLS 1.0 or 1.1 and disable the warning using the SSLVersionMin but only until January 2021, Google said.

Is your website ready for the new Google Chrome updates? Research shows that Google Chrome is one of the most used browsers not just in the Philippines but also in parts of Asia, Europe, and the US. Don’t scare away your visitors with a website that is not secure. We can help install your SSL in a matter of hours. Get in touch with our Sales Team through our trunkline at +632 3490 0000 or drop us an email at [email protected]. #iManila #WebsiteSecurity #SSL

5 Effective Strategies in Marketing to the Gen Z

Each year another Digital Marketing trend is being discovered and we have to keep up in order to maintain our brand awareness. It’s a fierce competition among brands in the digital world but we have stick to our core – which is to be organic while staying relevant and always adapting to the rapidly evolving digital marketing world.

When we open the internet, it’s hard to determine which trend is on the rise and which trends we need to keep up with especially since consumers’ interest and behavior are unpredictable. Hence, we present to you 5 effective strategies for 2020 that will help give your brands maximum exposure.

  1.       Artificial Intelligence

This 2020 is the year where artificial intelligence is the next right-hand in securing data. It may help global businesses and industries in the next decade but it’s taking the simple job of what humans usually provide. Using AI can help brands gather data to review consumer behavior and search patterns and provide what’s best to increase sales. Soon, AI will be the driving force you will see it in other services such as:

–          Basic Communication

–          Product Recommendations

–          Content Creation

–          Email Personalization

–          E-commerce transactions

  1.       Programmatic Advertising

With the help of Artificial Intelligence, Programmatic Advertising is also one of the big trends in terms of tracking because it is easier for the younger generation as they are more active online. Under Programmatic Advertising comes Real-time bidding. This type of automation is more efficient and typically gives higher conversions while lowering customer acquisition costs.

  1.       Chatbots

Chatbots will continue to be an important digital marketing trend this 2020. Chatbots are AI-based technology that provides instant messaging to customers in real-time at any time. This trend will continue as 80% of businesses use chatbots to connect. At the same time, research shows that 63% of respondents prefer messaging a chatbot when it comes to communicating with brands.

  1.       Conversational Marketing

With the use of Chatbots, we can say that customers prefer more conversations in a way that allows them to interact and connect with their favorite brands. Long before the traditional type of marketing, this type of marketing is available to multiple channels to create relationships between brands and customers because the goal of this trend is to enhance user experience that will provide higher engagement and long-term loyalty.

  1.       Video Marketing

Gone are the days when consumers are pleased to see marketing ads through images and GIFs. Thus, Video Marketing is making its way to increase brand awareness of any brands because customers want to experience first-hand product preview even just through a video. According to surveys, a higher percentage of consumers want to watch a video to get information in order to make online purchase decisions. And with the rise of YouTube, this paved the way to bring videos to other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. One thing’s for sure, video marketing will be one of the most important trends in the next 5-10 years.

Want to know how your brand can reach Gen Z? Ask us how! Drop us an email at [email protected]. 

2020 Technological Trends You Should Know About

In the digital landscape, adaptation is equivalent to survival. 

Having a fast rate of adaptation and a strong foundation for SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) are all necessary when working with digital technologies. As a business owner, having a workforce that can navigate digitally and are able to adapt to the changing landscapes is valuable. 

Moving into the new year, we will be faced with a lot of new technologies. 

The question is, as a business owner, are your products and services relevant even with all these technological trends? Having to be able to adapt to rapidly changing customer needs is of the utmost importance. Worry not for we have rounded up the latest trends in technology to watch out for this 2020. 

5G Network

Though LTE use is far from waning, the rise of the new 5G network is something to look forward to. Huawei says that 5G could “support 1,000-fold gains in capacity, connections for at least 100 billion devices and a 10 Gb/s individual user experience of extremely low latency and response times.” The rise of this new network means that network providers would have to ramp up their services and increase their bandwidth to lower the costs. 

Personal Profiling

With the integration of digital technology becoming more seamless in our everyday lives, data has been able to come up with information that goes beyond just a basic demographic check. Profiling allows examining how people interact with technology such as what social media apps they most frequently use, how they curate it, how often they use it, and what pictures or content do they post. 

For businesses, this is a huge opportunity to get to know your customers and really tap into the market. Knowing how to integrate and adapt to an individual preference is key. Consumer analytics is the priority and with the constant shift in technology, it has become more valuable than ever. 

Automation

Each year we get new technologies that further make our lives easier, and automation is to thank. It is aimed to augment people and combines software, machine learning, and various automation tools to deliver such results. In the coming years, it is to be expected that more advanced analysis can be put out due to the automation of data. 

It is automation that is to thank in welcoming cashier-less transactions from retail stores and further improving the assembly or production lines. Automation is also expected to displace jobs that needed human presence for better efficiency. 

Online Debit

With everything made easier and more seamless online, it is no wonder that cryptocurrency is becoming more credible as time goes by. Digital payment systems are foreseen to grow in use and traditional banking will also slowly lose its ground. Businesses can take advantage of this by having an array of payment options to make payment as convenient as possible to all types of clientele. 

Technology is changing every day and it is essential to make sure that your business is suited to ride the wave of change. Don’t be intimidated by all the technological jargon by letting a partner agency like iManila help you! With years of experience under our belt, you can trust us to give you the support and solutions you need to keep you up to date in this digital world. 

Drop us a message at [email protected] and let us help you! #iManila #DigitalMarketing

Increase Your Company Revenue with Search Ads

You may have heard of the buzz about Google Ads, particularly Google Search Ads in helping a business drive growth. If you haven’t heard, going into the digital advertisement realm may sound daunting.

Here we will break down this claim, can you really increase your company’s revenue with Search Ads?

What are Google Ads?

To set things straight, it is important to know first the basics. Google Ads is actually an umbrella that comprises three ad networks namely: The Google Search Network, the Google Display Network, and the YouTube Network. Clicking any of those will bring you to the seller’s landing page which is any page where they hope you will ‘convert’ and buy their products.

The search network is the most popular network on Google for advertising. This deals with user intent as people usually go on Google to search for something they already have in mind. Your goal here is lead people to convert instead of just raising brand awareness.

It is here that the term Pay-per-Click comes in because you pay for each click that you get from the searchers. The concept of Cost-per-click or more known as CPC is used which is the average that you will pay for clicks. These vary per industry and usually have different benchmarks. Why is CPC important? That is because keywords on the search network are based on the price during bidding. You can set limits to how much you are going to spend and that will determine what keywords you can bid in.

The goal for the search network is to have your ad rank in the first page ideally. This is determined by ad rank which is made up of a variety of factors that include bid amount, quality score, and more. Given this, bidding higher or having a better quality score can greatly influence your ranking on the Google Search Engine Results Page.

What Numbers Say

While it may be difficult to make a decision to jump on the Google Ad train, a lot of other businesses have made it work on their favor. Statistics show that 88% of consumers use the Internet to find a local business and that 29% of consumers search for local businesses at least every week. This shows a huge potential to tap into the market actively using the Google Search platform as your future customers.

Why is the search network the best strategy instead of Search Engine Optimization? Well 89% of the traffic generated by search ads cannot be replaced by organic clicks when the ads are paused. For high commercial intent queries on search, the top three ad spots take about 40% of the clicks on the page. On top of that, 98% of searchers choose a business that is on the first page of the results they get, which shows the importance of not just being able to be part of the search network but also ranking on the top.

Do they work?

Once properly set up and managed, you can find a strong return on investment by using Google Ads. Businesses in fact, can make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads. For the businesses already using Google Ads, 72% of them plan to increase their PPC budgets which is another indicator that they are seeing good ROI. As for the mobile users, 70% of mobile searches call a business directly from Google Search.

While they are a multitude of other factors that leads to the success of a Google Ads campaign, its success still greatly depends on how its set up and managed. This is why it’s vital to have a great team to work on such a campaign. If you do not have a team that can do such, fear not for you can always leave it to the experts to manage your campaigns for you. Let a Google Partner agency like iManila be your partner in running your Google Search campaign. With many years of experience in the industry, you can count on us to deliver and give you an impactful campaign. Feel free to drop a message at [email protected] and see where we can help you! 

 

Poor Web Design Can Cost Your Business

Most of you are probably planning next year’s marketing strategies by now. But you might be forgetting about one important and mostly overlooked platform–your company’s website. Yes, a website may not be as interactive and as cost-efficient as social media but what businesses tend to overlook is that – websites are quite important! If you utilize it right, it might even bring you more revenue. How?

For starters, you already know that a well-designed and curated website is good for Search Engine Optimization, or in layman’s term, for ranking higher on search engines’ results pages. Nowadays, it’s not so hard to build your own website, but doing so may risk your business to have an unclear brand message and an unprofessional website. If you visit a company’s website with unruly information on its page or barely has information on it at all. Would you see that as a credible company? Probably not, right?

 

You Can Lose Potential Customers with an Unorganized Website

If your web design is all over the place, then the user will have a hard time finding what they’re looking for, making them exit your site unhappy. If you notice you have a high bounce rate, or that users leave your site after only visiting two pages, then check if they are having problems navigating from point A to point B. You may want to consult with UI/UX expert to see how else you can improve your user experience. A user-friendly website invites users to freely and easily move from one page to another – giving visitors the ease of finding what they’re looking for, while getting them more interested in the products and services that you offer. 

 

 

You Can Lose Brand Credibility With a Crappy Website

If your web design and overall aesthetic don’t have a coherent theme, it can hurt your brand perception. A well-put-together website that matches your print collaterals will help consumers connect your brand with references they’ll see later on. If you have an icon for your brand, and that icon is present on your website, visitors who may have seen your icon offline will now think, “I’ve seen this…” when they visit your site. Make sure you have a company background or an FAQ page for your website as this is useful for visitors that are interested in your business!

Search Engine Optimization is Important!

When you built your website, did you consider good SEO? Because you definitely should have! Good design and aesthetic can come and go. But a website with a good SEO ranking ranks higher on search engines’ results pages and makes it easier for consumers to find. You should also check if your website is compatible across all devices and loads fast. There are still a dozen other factors to consider for Search Engine Optimization. (You can read our related blog: SEO and SEM: The Perfect Online Marketing Tandem)

Colors Affect Purchasing Behavior

“Color is 85% of the reason you purchased a specific product,” says Neil Patel.

Research from QuickSprout indicated that 90% of all product assessments have something to do with colors. Although colors are subjective, at least use the right ones. Research states that big fonts, red colors in bold are good for headlines in your web design. On the other hand, the color blue generates a feeling of trust. “The Internet is a colorful place, and there is a lot that can be accomplished by using color in the right way, at the right time, with the right audience, and for the right purpose.”

 

All in all, don’t lose possible consumers because of a terribly designed website. Drop us a message to request for a free website audit from one of our dedicated Account Executives. We can help identify areas of your website that can be improved on! Email us at [email protected] or talk to us here. #iManila #WebsiteDevelopment #WebDesign #SEO